Lockheed Martin Demonstrates Tactical Vehicle Armour

28 May 2006

Lockheed Martin has developed and demonstrated a new macro-composite, low-cost tactical vehicle armour that they say promises exceptional performance.

According to Lockheed Martin, the Macro-Composite Protection System (MAPS) armour will provide armor-piercing, bullet, fragment/shrapnel and blast protection at a very low cost. The ‘armour-as-a-system’ was developed by Lockheed Martin as a solution to the coupled threat effects often encountered in today's environments, such as a bomb blast followed by a swarm of projectiles or armour-piercing sniper fire.

""We believe MAPS is a breakthrough in protective technology,"" said David Hunn, director - Mechanical Engineering at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. ""MAPS armour promises to provide an entirely new level of vehicle and personal protection to our forces that could save lives. And it should prove much less expensive than current ceramic armours once in production.""

MAPS armour is undergoing ballistic testing and has successfully shown protection against realistic armour piercing and fragmentation threats with no penetration, at a weight approximately 50 percent less than its equivalent in steel armour protection. Lockheed Martin has briefed the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps on preliminary testing results, and provided MAPS armour samples to the services for independent testing. Results of those tests should be available later this year.

MAPS armour is made out of a Lockheed Martin-developed macro-composite material encased in shock-absorbing polymers with a metallic strike face and spall plate.

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